RANDOM DRUG TESTING TO BEGIN AT SUPERIOR HIGH

Testing: Atheletes, Students With Parking Permits and Others In
Co-Curricular Activities Are Subject to the Tests.

"It's really about changing the climate of our school," activities
director Ray Kosey said. "We want the kids who are saying no to drugs
and alcohol to be the majority.... the longer you can keep kids from
using drugs, the less likely they are to get hooked on them.
Hopefully down the road, it changes the climate of our community, too."

Athletes won't be the only ones subject to testing. All students
involved in a co-curricular activity, such as debate or band, are
included -- as are students who buy a school parking permit. A third
test group is comprised of students who have volunteered for the
tests and have pledged to not use drugs.

"If this goes off the way we hope, it's going to help," Superior
principal Kent Bergum said. "This will help students make better
decisions. Ultimately, it creates an environment in the school where
they want to be."

Bergum cited recent surveys that show seniors didn't believe Superior
has maintained a drug-free environment. Of those surveyed, 35.5
percent said the school's policy needed improvement and 29 percent
said it was below average; 3.5 percent said the policy was excellent.

"For the last three years, our seniors, through their exit surveys,
have been telling us that our school climate dealing with drugs needs
to improve," Bergum said. "We're hearing from our students that this
is a concern."

Testing will begin in mid-September or early October. Officials said
between 10 and 15 students per week will be randomly chosen to submit
a urine sample and take a Breathalyzer exam. Testing will be
conducted by the school nurse, with the results examined by an
independent lab, which is expected to report back within 24 hours.

Ten substances, including marijuana, methadone, amphetamines,
barbiturates, cocaine and alcohol, will be tested for.

Steroids, banned by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic
Association, aren't part of the testing. Officials say costs are
prohibitive to test for them.

If a co-curricular member tests positive for drugs or alcohol, the
student must sit out one-fourth of the season; members of the second
test group would lose their parking privileges; and the volunteer
group members would lose status in that group.

If a student declines to be tested, he or she would be banned from
co-curricular activities for one year; others would lose parking privileges.

"I think it's a great program just because if an athlete is going to
be doing any drinking or drugs or something like that, they shouldn't
even attempt to play sports," senior football player Max Phillips
said. "I definitely don't want them on my team."

Reviews Mixed

Not all Superior students are in favor of the policy.

"I think it's stupid because it's none of the school's business what
you do outside of school," said junior Robb Frechette, who doesn't
plan to join an extracurricular activity or park at the school and
therefore wouldn't be subject to tests. "All my friends think it's
stupid, too."

Others believe it will enhance the school's image.

"I think the policy is going to have a positive impact in the
community because there is a big problem at the school," said junior
Jozie Nummi, a member of Future Business Leaders of America, the
Gay-Straight Alliance and the school's mock trial and swim teams.

Nummi says students will benefit because it prepares them for the
real world, in which companies routinely use drug screens.

"As a minor, we can give up some of our privacy," she said. "It will
give us a better reputation as a school as well."

Senior Garrett Vollmer, who has participated in mock trial and other
extracurricular programs, says Superior's perceived drug problem is
not as bad as some say. But Vollmer, one of a dozen Superior students
who toured Kimberly High School in east-central Wisconsin and
questioned administrators about their program, believes the system
has advantages.

"Starting out, I was skeptical," Vollmer said. "It might take a
little while, but I think it will eventually work."

"I would like to think there's a consequence when kids engage in a
behavior that's detrimental to them," said Paul Zollver, a marketing
teacher and Superior's DECA coach. "We're looking for alternatives
for kids. We know that if kids stay away from drugs and alcohol, they
will be more productive.

"By having the random testing, it will provide one more reason to
avoid that type of situation."

Whether other Wisconsin and Minnesota schools follow suit is
uncertain. Northwestern High School principal Steven High said his
school is holding off.

Bob DeMeyer, a former Northwestern football coach who is beginning
his first season at Superior, believes his new school is making the
right choice.

"We'd be foolish to think there's not a problem; it's a problem in
every school," DeMeyer said. "Whether it's one kid doing it or 1,000
kids doing it, it's something that needs to be addressed. I know
they've done their research and I think we're definitely going in the
right direction."

Kimberly Model

Superior's program closely models Kimberly's. Superior Superintendent
Jay Mitchell toured Kimberly's new high school, where he heard about
the drug policy from superintendent Mel Lightner. Eventually, a
community group formed in Superior to discuss how to best implement
such a policy.

"It wasn't necessarily an 'I-got-you' attitude," Mitchell said. "It
was about creating an environment where they don't have to be exposed
to those things."

Mitchell said there was little resistance at three community meetings.

"The big issue is the invasion of personal privacy," he said. "But
most parents felt like they would like to know if their kids were
involved in at-risk behavior rather than (worry about) the privacy issue."

With tests costing approximately $22.50 each, Mitchell appropriated
$15,000 from the 2006-07 school year's administrative budget. That
cost included purchasing a Breathalyzer.

"We (originally) weren't going to test for alcohol at all, but the
students said we had to," Mitchell said.

Superior has applied for federal aid and is waiting to see if it
receives any grant money. Kimberly does not receive any aid.

Kimberly principal Mike Rietveld, whose school is entering its fifth
year of drug tests, said about 300 students are tested yearly, but
alcohol isn't tested for. Rietveld said there are now fewer
infractions by athletes, and expulsions, which numbered 12 one year
before the testing, have gone down.

"It's hard to gauge what a success is, but we feel it's made a
difference," he said.

Superior is a much larger school, with about 1,630 students in grades
9-12. Kosey estimates 60 percent of the students are involved in a
co-curricular activity, which, combined with the other test groups,
means a vast majority of Superior's student body will be subject to testing.

"We don't know if we have any more drugs in our building than other
schools around here, but there was a group of kids that wanted to do
something about it," Kosey said.

Bergum, entering his sixth year as principal, said he is most excited
about the volunteer group.

"That's the one that we saw from Kimberly that holds the most promise
because it starts to get at that culture," he said. "If students view
this as something that makes a better school -- and they are telling
us that they don't like it here as far as that component -- then that
group has a lot of power because it will be open to everybody."

Steroid Testing

It may take time before steroids are included.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that
6.1 percent, or nearly 300,000 U.S. high school students, used
steroids without a doctor's prescription at least once in 2003. A
similar study that year in New Jersey found that state's total at 3.1 percent.

That prompted New Jersey to become the first state to institute a
statewide steroid-testing policy for high school athletes. That
measure was passed in June and takes effect at all tournaments this fall.

"New Jersey will serve as a model plan for other states," said Robert
F. Kanaby, executive director of the National Federation of State
High School Associations.

New Jersey's plan calls for random testing of athletes who have
qualified individually or with their team for state championships.
Positive tests would require a one-year loss of eligibility.

According to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic
Association, about 500 of the approximately 10,000 athletes would be
tested. Each test is expected to cost between $150 and $200. The
state and the NJSIAA each will contribute $50,000 toward the yearly total.

Those costs make testing in Minnesota and Wisconsin impossible at this time.

"When you talk about doing that at a statewide level, you run into
problems of 'Where do you get the funding?' " WIAA communications
director Todd Clark said.

The WIAA has chosen the route of educating students against taking
banned substances; Clark says the WIAA isn't convinced that testing is best.

"Is it going to be a deterrent? We're not sure it's going to be a
deterrent. Only time will tell," he said. "What's more effective,
education or testing? Most times you will find education is the most
effective. We're going the education route."

Jody Redman, an associate director with the Minnesota State High
School League, said the league's Sports Medicine Advisory Committee
has recommended in the past not to institute mandatory testing.

"National statistics state there's not a huge use of steroids in this
part of the country," Redman said.

William Roberts, a doctor with the Department of Family Practice and
Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School,
doubts whether New Jersey's plan will work. He says tests should be
done in the offseason when athletes would be using steroids to bulk
up, not during state tournaments when performance-enhancing drugs
would already have left their system.

"When do football players use steroids? In May, June and July," said
Roberts, chairman of the MSHSL's Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.
"Until somebody comes up with a plan that's feasible from a financial
standpoint, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

"The threat of testing might deter some, but those who want to will
find a way."

Bill Westholm, director of school operations for the Duluth School
District, said the drug test issue likely will be discussed at an
upcoming meeting of activities directors. "It may be something that
we consider, but we haven't taken a formal position on it," Westholm said.

Westholm knows student-athletes' tendencies well, having spent at
least 11 of his almost 30 years in the Duluth School District
coaching track, football and swimming.

"It goes on," Westholm said of drugs. "How widespread is it? In my
experience coaching, it varies from year to year.... It does happen."

And it's something that Superior administrators hope to curtail.

"If we stay the course for four or five years, we'll be able to
change that culture," Mitchell said.